“Hide” and Seek

Yesterday, prior to supper, Mama and the kids were playing “hide” and seek. The reason I put the word “hide” in quotation marks is apparent if you’ve ever played this game with preschoolers. If you haven’t had the pleasure, I shall explain, as best I can, the tactics used by small children:

First off, they will endeavour to use the same spot over and over again. I mean, if it was a terrific spot to begin with, then why shouldn’t it be equally good the second, third, or four hundred and seventy-sixth time?

Secondly, they will generally announce to the person in charge of seeking where their chosen hiding spot will be, so as to be sure that they will be found again.

If they deem that the seeker is taking too long to find them, they will inevitably come out and make sure that they haven’t been forgotten about. This, at least in our house, takes place no more than 20 seconds after the “Ready or not” call.

About the time I was 10 or 12, I started thinking about what it means to call out “Ready or not, here I come!”, and I thought that it was a strange thing to say. I mean, who isn’t ready by the time that this statement is yelled? It just doesn’t make sense.

Now that I play the game with a three-year-old and a four-year-old, I’ve discovered the answer to my question. The odds of them being ready by the time that this statement is made are slim-to-diddly. C’mon guys, you know that you have a limited amount of time to pick a spot, and make yourself hidden. It’s not even like you have to pick the spot. It’s the same darn spot that you used last time, and the time before that, and the oh-so-many times prior to that. Sometimes I don’t think that they’re taking this game very seriously.

I wish I could say that this picture is of Saarah counting while everyone else hides, but I would be lying if I did. No, this was how she chose to hide, on one occasion. This brings me to my next point: They suck at hiding. I mean, really suck. It’s a darn good thing that there isn’t a very serious reason that they might be needing to hide, otherwise they’d be in a whole heap of trouble.

When I was running a daycare in our house, the kids wanted to play hide-and-seek one day, but there was a baby sleeping in one of the rooms. During this time, I insisted that the kids play only in the living room, so as not to wake the baby. They told me that they would play just in that room. Now, it’s not like we have an expansive living room, by any means, nor is there anywhere that one might be able to hide. They, being terrible at this game, managed to entertain themselves for nearly 30 minutes with this activity.

About a month ago, we were all playing hide-and-seek together, and Mama decided to hide somewhere other than her usual spot. She wasn’t overly hidden, but the two of them couldn’t find her for love nor money. She was even calling to them from her spot, and had to eventually emerge, given that they had both given up and were quite upset that they hadn’t succeeded in their efforts.

She had only walked into Tevye’s closet, and hidden there. They were in and out of that room at least 10 times, but failed to look there. There isn’t even a door on his closet!

Of course, when they do succeed in finding someone, especially if they’ve hidden somewhere new, they get quite excited.

When it was my daughter’s turn to hide, she used to just stand in the middle of the room with her hands over her eyes. It used to take me a very long time to “find” her, and she had incredible patience just standing there very still for a long time. We may laugh and judge them for being so terrible at hide and seek, but we should remember that we are the ones who encourage it by pretending we can’t find them for a while – why would they not think they are really good at hiding when even their super-intelligent parents can’t find them? They’d soon get better at it if we were more honest and found them straight away; sure there would be a few tears at first, but hey that’s what tough love is all about!

I hadn’t considered that. Perhaps I’ll encourage better hiding spots in the future. Of course, I do enjoy watching them try and fool me by simply closing their eyes. I don’t think it would be nearly as much fun if they were good at the game.

I tried to explain to Emilia that I could see her and that the point of hide and seek was to hide where I couldn’t see her. She nodded. I said, “you get it?” She said, “Yeah!!!” Then she hid in the exact same spot she always hides in. So I went and read a book. As she’s gotten older, she is getting the hiding thing a bit more and more, but still, I can go read a book while she goes back behind the couch again. I don’t know *where* she is. LOL.

That’s very cool! :) Sometimes people try to pronounce it Emily-ya. I figure she’ll be dealing with that for the rest of her life, but oh well, we liked the name soooo much that we gave it to her anyway.

Yeah, I thought it was pretty hilarious. Another example of cartoon-like events occurring in real life. If she was standing in the middle of the room with a lamp shade on her head, it would have been swell. Too bad we don’t have any lamps with lampshades. I may have to buy one for the next time we play hide-and-seek.

I have always found it somewhat exhausting playing just about anything with my son as his pleas for “again, again” never seem to end. Hide and seek was no different and he too was not a brilliant hider and to top it off our apartment is probably smaller then your livingroom hehe
He also used to get SO annoyed if he couldn’t find me, he is 7 now and we don’t play it anymore.

This one really made me laugh out loud. It was so well timed, as yesterday Lola decided we should play hide and seek, and then proceeded to hide behind the same door 5 times, and laugh really loudly every time, and then tell me it was MY turn to hide behind the door so she could find me.
I love that picture of feet sticking out from behind the curtains!
My husband, btw, always ACTUALLY hides when playing with lola, and inevitably, she is completely flummoxed and has to come get me to help her find daddy after searching behind the door for 4 seconds and then giving up.

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